Prison Grapevine

Prisons have their own communication system, efficient, nearly foolproof, and speedy. Not much of interest happens in any prison that isn't soon known by inmates everywhere. If I'm interested in another prisoner, I just mention this to Jerry and soon the information arrives. On one occasion, an inmate lied about Jerry and before the lie was detected Jerry had suffered the consequences. A few weeks later, a new prisoner approached Jerry in the yard and said that he had run into the inmate later in another prisoner and beat the ****** out of him. He just wanted Jerry to know the wrong had been righted. If a prisoner with bad credentials is being sent to another prisoner, the inmates know about it long before he arrives. An example was a man who had nearly beat his grandmother to death; even before he arrived at prison they were waiting for him. There is no escape from the grapevine.

A few months ago, I was interviewed by a reporter about Jerry and almost as soon as the story appeared, the prisoners at other facilities were commenting about it. One inmate even wrote the reporter. Once when Jerry was sick, it was an inmate who informed us of the illness.

I have to be able to sift through the information, however, to see if I'm being told the truth, but for the most part I've found it to be reliable. I once received a phone call from someone wanting to talk about Richard, and it took me a moment to understand that they were talking about Jerry because in his crime spree he went by the name Richard. The caller was the wife of an inmate.

Inmates send Jerry information about former associates, information he may or may not want, and otherwise try to help. It is a large network and the longer you've been in prison, the larger the network becomes.

More later.